Of Craft and Care

A kindergarten is the first public space children encounter outside their homes. As they leave the protection of their parents and the familiarity of their homes for the first time, architecture becomes the basis that empowers teachers to inspire them to explore and play while feeling safe and comfortable. Scale, flexibility, and spatiality play important roles in shaping children's emotional and cognitive development.

Between 2017 and 2022, our practice completed two public kindergartens for very different urban conditions in Shanghai. While one was built for a brand-new residential community on the edge of a high-tech park in the suburbs, the other was built as a second campus for one of the oldest kindergartens in downtown Shanghai within an area characterized by a mixture of historical and contemporary urban contexts.

The brief for the Vanke Experimental Kindergarten called for the creation of a full-time public kindergarten of 15 classes that followed the strict requirements of the education bureau while responding to the various constraints of the context. The awkwardly-shaped triangular site with a monstrous elevated expressway and canal to the south, high-density residential compounds to the north, a vehicular bridge to the east, and a transformer room for regional electric power distribution to be housed on the western edge presented a particular challenge and a unique opportunity. The precarious balancing of program, space, and context became the primary design concern.

"What is the best strategy for this site?" was the question posed to the team. During our initial research, we found that informal spaces such as corridors in front of the activity rooms often become essential places for children to inhabit, interact, and play. After multiple iterations, the final scheme was developed as a series of interconnected volumes, each loaded with different activity rooms linked by exterior platforms with views towards the external landscape. The curve-shaped roofs vaguely resemble the universally famous cartoon character Thomas the Train, passing through the site and carrying the children's imagination into the future.

The rooms are distributed on both the north and south sides of a central corridor, while three triangular atriums gradually expand from west to east. The activity rooms, bedrooms, and offices are located on the south side for better sunlight and views. Other supporting functional spaces, including the foyer, special activity rooms, stairways, toilets, etc., are arranged on the north side adjacent to the main entrance.

The north elevation facing the street respects the urban surroundings while maintaining a sense of playfulness. The external fence wall is designed as a safety measure and a buffer between the building and the street, creating pleasant views for pedestrians while forming a positive continuous interface that shares green spaces with the city. It recedes at multiple locations from the site boundary and leaves residual spaces for people passing by as well as for parents waiting to pick up their children.

For decades, the Yuyao Road Kindergarten has been regarded as a top-tier public kindergarten that adhered to the principle of "everything for the children." Our project was the winning proposal for an international competition to expand the school. Although it was completed in the spring of 2020, COVID-19 had just broken out in Shanghai, so it was not open until 2022.

In the spring of 2024, we went back for a visit, during which I remembered the complex and rich urban context that had impressed me during our first site visit years ago. The overall design was inspired by the nearby "li-nong," or alleyway housing, one of the most representative urban elements of old Shanghai. These close-knit hexagonal units are full of life and activities. Inspired by honeycombs, they metaphorically represent the collective wisdom that comes from human collaboration.

In our conversation with Ms. Tan, the kindergarten's principal, we reflected on the challenges of building such a small-scale, welcoming kindergarten amid skyscrapers and alleyways and she viewed it as a continuation of the city's historical context. We had an extensive discussion about how each space was planned and used and how design is not only about having a clear strategy that responds to the brief but it’s also about leaving enough flexibility so that the users can continue enhancing the spaces after moving in.

In the outdoor activity area the ground is covered with different materials such as composite wood decking and grass, providing diverse tactile experiences for the children. The rich and varied design of this space cultivates their understanding of the world and enhances sensory development. Kindergartens are places where children live, learn, and grow; every space and detail can influence their perception of the world. As we walked through the bedrooms, Ms. Tan demonstrated the pull-out beds and how they are adapted to the height of the room. As the principal, she and her team completed the interior soft furnishings, adding a "human touch" to the space because a kindergarten is not only the work of the architect, it's also shaped by the children and their teachers.

Main image: The main entrance recedes from the site boundary leaving residual spaces as waiting areas, Vanke Experimental Kindergarten, Shanghai, 2017, Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects. Photo © Zhu Siyu